NBA Draft Scouting Report: Senegal's Ousmane N'Diaye
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Ousmane N'Diaye
Forward | Senegal
Height: 6'11” | Weight: 210 lbs
2024 Draft Age: 20.26
Brad Penner / USA TODAY Sports
Prospect Profile
N’Diaye has generated nearly equal amounts of buzz and intrigue among international scouts for the past three years. In early 2020, N’Diaye had a breakout performance for Bayern Munich at the Szent Istvan U16 Basketball Cup in Hungary, where he showed impressive perimeter skills for his age and size, being able to put the ball on the floor, create space against opponents one-on-one and shoot the basketball.
After the COVID pandemic led to the cancellation of the entire 2020-21 basketball season in Germany as well as all junior basketball tournaments in Europe, we finally had the chance to watch he once again in the 2021-22 season playing for Dragons Rhöndorf in the third-division of Germany, where he saw important minutes and continued to show the flashes of perimeter skills for his size.
After his performance at the FIBA U18 African Championships last summer, it became time to consider the Senegalese prospect as one that could contribute to winning at the NBA level.
Listed at 6-foot-11 with long legs and arms, N’Diaye handles the ball with the fluidity of a perimeter player, using his long arms to keep a low dribble point. He truly shines in drive initiation, where he utilizes a number of dribble moves (crossovers, in-and-outs) to get defenders off-balance and attack the rim.
As good as he is at initiating drives, N’Diaye is limited as a finisher. The key factor lies in his lack of strength, which makes it hard for him to create separation against similarly sized opponents and forces him into turnovers or tough, lower-percentage shots further away from the rim.
N’Diaye, however, also shows the ability to contribute as a scorer from the perimeter, as his shooting ability is excellent for someone at his size and age. He is an efficient shooter off-the-catch, showing repeatable mechanics and a deep range, but even more impressive are his moments of shooting off-the-dribble, where he uses his handling ability to create space in isolation situations against defenders before rising up for stepback jumpers.
N’Diaye is able to convert shots under pressure and off-balance, showing a great level of deceleration which allows him to stop and pop for jumpers, both as a transition handler or after beating his man in the half-court.
Defensively, N’Diaye seems to still be looking for an optimal role. He does contribute as a prolific defensive rebounder and is able to contest shots with relative ease due to his height and standing reach. It's still unclear if he can be a full-time five at the NBA level from day one due to his lack of strength.
While he does contribute as a perimeter defender by using his size and length to contest jumpers and to bother drivers on their way to the rim, his narrow hips and high center of gravity makes it hard for him to get low in a defensive stance and to turn his hips quickly to cover drives. Despite the lack of strength, he plays with enough skill to overcome that weakness. However, expect teams to ask themselves how they can utilize his unique combination of size and skills to win games.
Having the measurements of a big, the skillset of a perimeter player and some glaring weaknesses that will need to be addressed before he contributes to winning at the NBA level, N’Diaye is a curious case. It all starts with him growing into his body, as becoming stronger will either solve or mask some of the current deficiencies in his game.
Given his body type, his optimal defensive role will likely be as an off-ball defender who uses his length to cover bigger forwards in the perimeter and protects the rim on a secondary level, helping to contest and block shots after penetration. But in order to do that he will need to get stronger, otherwise he could simply get bullied by the size of bigger NBA forwards.
Offensively, getting stronger would allow him to improve as a driver, which then turns him into a threat to score not only from beyond the arc but also at the rim.
As it tends to happen with enigmatic prospects, the floor is low with him, but being a two-level self creator at 6-foot-11 is as rare as it is valuable and N’Diaye definitely has the skills and the tools to become one. Once June rolls around, his ceiling could prove to be too enticing for certain NBA teams to pass up at some point in the draft.
Highlights
Draft Projection
Second-Round Pick in 2024 NBA Draft.
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